“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”- Jeremiah 5:31
When I think about man's inability to contemplate the end of something it strikes me that when it comes to building our kingdoms here we often can look towards the end. Think of the Olympic athlete who is training now for something that comes four years from now. Think of a commercial developer buying land for something they may build years in the future. Why, just this week the Georgia port authority announced a multi-million dollar project that was begun in efforts to increase capacity—looking into the year twenty thirty. Elon Musk is trying to look hundreds of years down the road to put mankind on mars. The investment banker puts millions into a company in hopes to receive millions more in the long-term future. If it is a matter of temporal gain, personal wealth, or collective triumph, we don’t struggle with future planning. However, when we begin to speak about eternity it seems the brain short circuits. Many people go through this life neglecting this great consideration. Perhaps the devil steps in and clouds our judgment. And yet, a certain death is coming. It is the devil’s business to busy us about anything else, and keep our minds on this temporary world. However, it is the role of the Spirit to turn our hearts and minds to the end. The spirit does this through preaching, teaching, Bible reading, church services, and even funerals. The wisdom of Solomon says that it is better to go to the house of mourning than feasting, because in the house of mourning we must face the end. Why is it so hard for mankind to face his end? Perhaps it is scary, perhaps it is so final and so daunting it’s better to ignore. Perhaps we don’t believe what we sometimes say we believe: that there is a heaven, and there is a hell— that there is something beyond this life. It is all these things, but I also feel through the instruction of this scripture in Jeremiah that it is because we love to have it so. We love to have the here and now. We love to have the natural world surround us, consume us, comfort us, and invite us to playfulness. We love to have it so, and to consider that it will all end is to challenge that love. We must cast down our idol of playfulness and turn our attention to the sobering reality that we are mortal and God is eternal.
Herein is the responsibility of the Christian— to fix our hearts on eternity and warn the people to flee from the wrath to come; to give a more earnest heed lest we let them slip; to live with eternity’s values in view and remain a pilgrim here on earth. Through prayer, reading, witnessing, testifying, assembling together, we can find the strength and insight to do these things. In short , through the Spirit we can live with the ultimate end in mind.
